TruUSA London Track

Dave invited me to write this post because I was attending #TruUSA, the recruitment un-conference in America’s cheese town, Madison, WI. We chatted with the people who made it there via Twitter; those who did not miss out due to the Icelandic Volcano. The two days were great networking with loads to learn.

Tru organisers set up a video streamed track between London and Madison yesterday so us guys marooned in the UK could still take part.

The 3 hour session was fun, with good company including @BillBoorman, @AlanWhitford, @SiteAdvisor, @James_Mayes, @TheSourceress, @GordenLokenberg. The topics discussed were varied and wide, we talked about mobile content, HR manager influence, social recruiting, ad copy quality, future of recruiters, future of mobile, sourcing, talent puddle and recruiting for the disabled.

To my surprise when discussing ad copy quality, some felt it was not important and did not matter. Unfortunately too many job ads are cut and pasted from the job description and pumped into job boards. Whilst this may be quick and easy for the recruitment consultant; is it making the most of their job board spend? Is it in the full interest of their client? Does it help the job seeker?

At Allthetopbananas.com we are experts at search algorithms. The copy straight from a job description is not optimised; the keywords that job seekers may search for will not be present. Clearly this will reduce the response that the recruiter receives. They could be missing out on some key talent. Equally important, a job description does not sell the job. By sell I mean it gives the job seeker no reason to apply to that particular company over the other companies they are looking at. The best talent need some bait on the hook!

Mobile perception was interesting, as with all growing web platforms there are doubters. Ironically a few of the early adopters to social media, who were faced with many social doubters, are themselves mobile doubters! The phrase “mobile apps are a fad and wont last” was voiced. How long and how many apps are needed for you to understand it is not a fad. Is 3 years, 160,000 apps and 2 billion downloads not enough? Well, just sit about doubting it for another year or so as that figure doubles – perhaps then you will feel comfortable it is not a fad?

The Rich Internet Application (RIA) has been growing for years. In Twitter only around one third of the users consume the website Twitter.com, everyone else is using mobile or desktop apps such as TweetDeck. The RIA is not going to decline – the beyond the browser web experience will grow! The mobile app provides enhanced experience to access online content and services, as well as improving response times.

Mobile apps are not a fad, just as web pages were not a fad 15-20 years ago – don’t make the same mistakes many newspaper publishers made back then!

While thinking about Mobile the discussion touched on potential solutions aimed at the recruiter instead of the jobseeker. Very interesting, this thinking is in line with our development road map – so watch this space!